Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle activity monitoring systems, more specifically to systems for monitoring, recording, and analyzing vehicle activity.
Description of the Related Art
For certain driving conditions, communications from one vehicle to a subset of other proximate vehicles is desirable. Two such example situations are a braking or turn signal usage. In such situations, alerting vehicles outside the signaling vehicle's lane of travel would result in false alerts to those other vehicles.
In a braking situation, reaction time is one of the most significant factors in causes of rear-end vehicular collisions. Driver reaction times are greatly affected by whether the driver is alerted to the need to brake. In a representative problem scenario illustrated in FIG. 5a, there is a leading vehicle 1, a first trailing vehicle 2, and a second trailing vehicle 3. When the leading vehicle 1 directly ahead of the first trailing vehicle 2 stops, the driver of the first trailing 2 vehicle is alert, visual conditions are excellent, and the driver notices the brake signal or turn signal of the leading vehicle 1, the best possible reaction time is achieved. However, where the second trailing vehicle 3 is further behind and obscured by the first trailing vehicle 2, the driver of that second trailing vehicle 3 is unable to see the braking or other signal lights of that leading vehicle 1. That driver must rely on the reaction time and driving style of the vehicles between him and the leading vehicle 1 and rely on the driver of the intervening first trailing vehicle 2 in order to maximize reaction time and apply the brakes at the earliest possible opportunity.
Even where there is no intervening vehicle, it may not be possible for the first trailing vehicle's 2 driver to see the signal lights of a vehicle directly in front of the driver under poor visual conditions such as fog or heavy rain.
In such cases, the driver loses valuable time needed to interpret the event, decide upon the response, and then apply brakes, steer, or other suitable response. To a great extent, available reaction time depends on the distance of the lead vehicle 1 to the trailing vehicles 2 3 when it activates its signal light. Differences in drivers' attention and reaction time in tenths of a second or lower can limit accidents and decrease high stress driving.
These problems are exaggerated in congestion zones or peak driving times, leading to frequent hard stopping, frequent acceleration, and a poor driving experience. Hard acceleration or braking is a driver event when more force than normal is applied to the vehicle's brake or accelerator. It can be an indicator of aggressive or unsafe driving. It can also arise from road design and traffic patterns. At a minimum, this style of driving is wasteful and uneconomic. Furthermore, it should also be noted that hard braking and acceleration events can also indicate crash avoidance, or that a driver has been involved in an accident. Thus it would be desirable for a system which enables change of driver behavior in order to minimize such situations.